Charges-Important Info

Boundary Wall Query: Despite the TRA doing all they can to establish which of the boundary walls belong to this estate, Camden have not been able to confirm the ownership on 7 individual sections around the estate. Please refer to the “Table of Ownership” by going to the “How Estate Is Run”/Infrastructure/Boundary Walls. Leaseholders will need to keep an eye on Repairs. When you get your Full Breakdown of Repairs, with your Final Adjustment Service Charge bill, please check if there is any repair work (however small) to any boundary wall which is being charged to you. If the repair is to a section of the boundary wall that Camden have yet to prove ownership for, they are not legally allowed to charge you for this. (12thJan 2016)

Section 20 B – As you know, a Section 20 needs to be issued if works of any kind are going to take place and cost any single leaseholder more than £250 per property. This work should be billed within the year after it was completed. If the work is not invoiced within 18 months of the work being completed, the leaseholder is not obliged to pay the invoice. HOWEVER…….as long as Camden issues a Section 20B notice, 18 months after the work was completed, stating the estimated amount that will be charged in due course…..the Leaseholder is obliged to pay the invoice once it has been issued. From recent correspondence on this query with Stephen Harding (Consultation & Final Account Officer Principal) at Camden, the TRA understands that Camden need only issue ONE “Section 20B Notice” after 18 months – they do not need to continue to issue them every 18 months after that. Although Camden must bill for any work within 6 years of completion of the work, if a Section 20B Notice has been issued, there is no limit on how late the actual invoice can be issued and in theory, this could be sent years later. Camden are working towards billing everything within a year of it being carried out. Once the Section 20B Notice has been issued, Camden may “issue” an estimate invoice before the “Actual” invoice and if the “estimate” = £0.00, Camden will not send this out to leaseholders but it will appear on their account. They may change this system to make it easier but in Aug 2015, this was the case with regards the IRS invoice.

Example:“The Digital IRS TV aerials were installed on the roofs of all 7 blocks in the summer of 2010. A section 20B Notice was issued in Jan 2012. This automatically meant that once the actual invoice was ready, Leaseholders would be obliged to pay it. The reason Camden did not invoice for this work until Aug 2015, is because this particular work was carried out “Borough-wide” and so they waited until the entire job was finished before issuing the invoice. This is not a suitable way to bill for work and Stephen Harding has said that they are looking at alternative ways to make billing easier and quicker in the future. Leaseholders will notice that if they ask for the breakdown of this bill, there is a reduction in the final amount, awarded to the leaseholder, due to “limitation due to late submission of account”. Camden “issued” an estimate invoice of £0.00 in June 2015 and the TRA discovered that since the invoice is for a zero total, Camden do not actually send this invoice out – even though it is referred to as “issued”. Instead, Camden just issue and send the Actual invoice, which in this case was sent in Aug 2015.